Plan B for When Benny Messes Up
by inosine
Summary: Benny overexerts himself with a transportation spell and ends up getting the gang stuck in a mountain. In order to get home before nerves run thin, Ethan must kiss Benny.
1. Chapter 1

"Rory what is that?" Ethan asks, warning sharp in his voice.

ory is sliding into shotgun wearing a crown of twigs and moss. Ethan already knows it's the Dryad King's crown but the tiniest part of him hopes Rory has managed to arts and crafts himself a replica.

"Dude this was a peace mission. You did not just steal the royal jewels." Benny says, his hand dropping from the keys in the ignition to inspect the forest surrounding the dirt and gravel road.

"King Quercus left it on a stump; he clearly didn't want it anymore." Rory reasons adding, "Besides it looks better me."

"He's a dryad that lives in the forest. A stump is like his nightstand." Benny explains. Just down the road Jane, Erica, and two spell casters from the recently formed White Chapel Coven, were dawdling getting into the truck. Benny's looking for any sign that the dryads have noticed Rory's theft. Is the wind picking up or are the trees agitated?

"Luke to Leia. Leia please come in. Over" Ethan calls out over the walkie-talkie they brought along (the cell reception was spotty).

"Ethan you don't have to use that stupid radio talk, or code names. No one else is listening to us." Jane replies from no more than 15 feet away.

"We may have an issue, Jar Jar stole the golden idle. Be on the lookout for storm troopers. Over." Ethan replies still serious. Sarah chuckles a little. "What?" Ethan asks indignantly.

"Nothing." Sarah says kissing his cheek, "You're just really cute when you're dorky." Ethan beams, giving Sarah a light kiss on the lips.

"Be gross-cute later, guys. We have incoming." Benny points out the front window at a group of armed dryads gathering near the edge of the tree line. On first look Ethan doesn't see anything, but notices movement when a new arrival edges around a bush. Its bark textured skin and leaf clothing blend in perfectly with the forest. "I count 20 so far." Benny adds. Ethan made a mental note to ask Benny later if he was actually able to see the stationary dryads —it could be natural ability of Earth-dedicated spell casters.

"Am I supposed to understand your geek-speak mumbo-jumbo?" Jane sounds exasperated even over the scratchy walkie-talkie line.

"Hostiles, Jane! Don't pretend like you don't understand. Translation: Rory pissed the dryads off and now they're grouping around at the edge of the road." Ethan explains urgently. "Over." He adds hastily. Good radio etiquette serves a purpose.

Benny started the car, which got the attention of the other group. Jane was gesturing rapidly, clearly explaining the situation to the older mages, Robert and Kevin.

"Benny what are you doing? They're going to think we're trying to run. We have to give the crown back," Ethan demands.

"Uh... Okay. But in the meantime, I'm working on a 30 point turn so we can get out of here. You know, in case a tribe of magic tree people with trust issues forgets about the 300lbs of fertilizer we brought in favor of killing us for stealing the ancient magic forest crown." Benny says dryly.

"Wait, am I Jar Jar Binks?" Rory asks outraged.

"Not now Rory," Ethan hushes him. Outside the car the dryads continue emerging from the trees along both sides of the road. Jane, Robert, and Kevin are buckling into the truck, but Erica vamp-speeds into Benny's car shoving Sarah into the middle seat in the back.

"Remind me again why I came along on this little travesty." Erica asks, the door clicking closed again.

Sarah replies with exasperation, "Because I went with you on six hour non-stop shopping trip so you could find the perfect outfit for your birthday party."

"Okay well this snoozefest just turned into a good way to ruin my manicure so I'm out." Erica declares tugging on the door handle.

Sarah snagged Erica's arm before she was able to speed off. "Erica, no. You promised to help get everyone out if things went bad." Sarah begged.

Erica relents with a shrug. "Fine. What's the plan to keep all the losers safe?"

"Yeah Ethan, what is the plan?" Benny asks with a slight tremble in his voice. In a quick synchronized action, the dryads stagger onto road into a circular formation surrounding both the car and the truck.

"Rory go out there and give back the crown." Ethan directs Rory, pointing over his shoulder to what he assumed was the king. He was the tallest person-shaped tree segment.

Benny stopped the car to give Rory a chance to get out. Rory cautiously approached the lone tree-like figure still wearing the venerated wooden circlet and waving at him sheepishly. "Hi there, Mr. Tree King sir. I didn't mean to take your crown..." Rory trails off.

"Rory take it off." Ethan yells out the window over Sarah and Erica. Benny puts the car in reverse, careful not to hit Rory, resuming his increasingly irrelevant quest of turning the car around.

Rory takes the crown off and offers it out to the Dryad King. In retrospect Ethan should've sent Benny out with the crown. Benny had a spell that allowed him to speak the dryad language. And more importantly, understand it. Rory was just shrugging and smiling apologetically. Ethan was pretty sure Grandma Weir had said something about showing one's teeth being considered a sign of aggression to the dryads.

The Dryad King ripped the crown out of Rory's hand in a grand sweeping gesture that aimed slightly higher could have just as easily taken a human's head off. A good reason to not have sent Benny actually.

Ethan angled his body between the front two seats so he could see the action better. Sarah steadied him with a strong hand on his hip. Possibly it was more to keep Ethan from squishing her.

The Dryad King was yelling something that Ethan didn't understand, but he did understand what it meant when all of the surrounding dryads suddenly rushed forward brandishing branches and rocks.

"Benny get us out of here now!" Ethan yells.

The car was now entirely perpendicular to the direction of the road, facing down the very steep tree covered hillside. "Okay," Benny mumbles to himself, "car's useless." Hastily Benny throws out a Latin incantation interspersed with uncertain um's. Ethan has a moment to be worried before a blinding flash of light gradually gives way to complete black.

"What just happened?" Erica demands into the darkness. Whatever Benny had cast, Ethan could no longer hear dryad war cries outside, so that had to be good.

"Okay let's evaluate our situation. Benny can you do a torch spell?" Ethan knew he had to be the calm rational voice.

No response. "Benny?" Ethan asks again.

"I can do a fairy light spell." Jane's voice issues from the front of the car surprising Ethan. Without waiting for an answer Jane speaks the incantation and small glowing balls rise out of her palms to skitter along the ceiling of the car. The resulting light is rose-toned and patchy, but adequate.

"When did you get here, mini-Morgan?" Erica asks, inspecting her intact nails. Ethan is reminded of a cat feigning disinterest. Jane sticks her tongue out as a response.

Benny was still in the car but he was slumped over the steering wheel. Outside the windows of the car appears to be solid stone fitted smoothly against the glass.

"Uh okay this is different," Ethan remarks absently. He had learned that focusing on a question before touching the subject could more reliably trigger visions. So Ethan concentrated on 'What did Benny do? How did it go wrong?' until his curiosity was an itchy pressure behind his eyes, and snaked his hand up between the driver's seat and the car door to touch Benny's back. He could just hear Sarah asking Jane to turn the car off as the vision hit him.

He saw the dryads closing in around their car. Switch views. Benny was casting the spell, but in the vision Ethan knew it was a transportation spell. A flash of Jane's face, Benny was scared for her safety in the attack, so he had pulled her into their car. A flash of the Weir's driveway. He was trying to get them home.

Helpfully the vision showed a map with a little car icon leaving a dotted trail from the site of the dryad meet-up and stopping short in a mountain. A flash of fuel gauge bottoming out. Ethan understood this to mean Benny had run out of power while the car was passing through a mountain. Finally a digital clock popped up showing 47 hours, 36 minutes, and 10 seconds counting down. Ethan unfortunately realized this was the time it would take Benny to recharge before casting the transportation spell again. At least it also meant that Benny was going to be okay.

Sarah was watching his face when he came out of the vision. "Benny ran out of juice halfway through a transportation spell. We're inside a mountain." Ethan explains briefly.

"Oh no, I am not stuck in a car with you nerds." Erica declares shoving her shoulder into the door. Ethan covers his ears against the horrible metal screech of car door grinding against boulder. Erica left a sizable dent in the mangled door suggesting she had made an impact on the stone outside, but the only result was crushed gravel and broken glass littering the floor at Erica's feet. "So much for that." She mumbles irritably.

"Did you see why I'm here?" Jane asks.

"Benny wanted to get you out of the fight." Ethan answers a little hesitantly. This was a repeating argument with Jane.

And predictably she explodes, "Why doesn't anybody think I can do anything? I would've been fine with Bobby and Kevin there! Plus, I'm fourteen. You and Benny were fighting vampires by then, without help from the Coven, I might add."

"Jane, don't be like that. You know you're basically a sister to Benny." Ethan reasoned. "Let's focus on how to get out of here. Jane do you have any spells that could get us home?" Ethan redirects.

"No," Jane responds as if it should have been painfully obvious to Ethan, "I don't have anything like a transportation spell."

Something that was becoming increasingly frustrating for Ethan as the group's main strategist was keeping track of which spells Benny and his sister each had. Jane was a light dedicate and Benny an Earth one, which apparently had stark logical differences to Jane. Benny, on the other hand, was often as mystified by his own abilities as Ethan was.

Jane gives in, "I'll see if I can find anything in my grimoire, but I can guarantee you I won't have any transportation spells." Jane pulls out the thick pink book, as well as a Latin dictionary, from her Moleo backpack—something that she thankfully never took off during missions. Ethan had to give her credit for taking missions seriously. Absently, she calls one of the fairy lights to hover over her right shoulder, illuminating her books.

"You owe me so much more than a shopping trip for this." Erica snaps at Sarah. Ethan grimaces, even on the other side of Sarah, Erica was scary.

"Erica come off it. You're affected by supernatural baddies as much as anyone else in White Chapel, and you're more equipped to help. You should be doing this without having to be bribed!" Sarah rebuts.

"Don't act so high and mighty with me, Sarah. You only do this because you're dating Ethan. That and you have some perverse need to be punished for being a vampire. I don't. There's nothing in this for me." Erica says, getting louder.

Brilliantly, Ethan climbs over the back seat into the trunk to put some space between himself and the vampire girls. "Uh... taking inventory," Ethan quickly makes up when Sarah shoots him an accusing look. It was actually a good idea.

In the background the girls were still arguing. "That is so unfair. And sexist! I fight to keep all of White Chapel safe." Sarah fires back.

While the original plan assumed peace talks would take two days at most, Benny had packed enough food to last a week (well maybe not that long considering how much Benny could put away). So food wasn't an issue. Except their menu was mostly cold canned beans and Doritos.

"Whatever," Erica sounded decidedly uninterested. "Why should I care that my best friend only spends time with me when she wants something."

Two full gallons of water would be fine for three humans for two days. Ethan was fairly certain the vampires could survive without it.

"Erica," Sarah says sadly, "It's not like that."

Ethan turns his attention to personal gear. He knew what was in his backpack. Clothes, some toiletries, a novel he was reading, a flashlight. Nothing that would get them out of the car or help them communicate with the outside world. Oh shit! Maybe he had cell reception.

"It isn't?" Erica asks. "Because that's what it feels like."

Ethan digs his cell phone out of his pocket and checks the screen. No bars. Ethan briefly entertains the idea of asking if anyone else had cell reception, but the chances were low and he didn't particularly want to interrupt Sarah and Erica's heated argument.

Except it seems the fight might be resolving as Sarah sighs. "I'm sorry Erica. You are my best friend and I should spend more time with you." She licks her lips her eyes failing to her lap meekly. "I guess, you know it's hard for me to find time. Between school, working part time at the diner, and this," She waves around herself, "I just don't have a lot of time."

While Ethan didn't generally feel comfortable going through people's stuff without permission, he decides he has no such qualms going through Benny's bag.

Erica scoffs, "Why do you work at the diner anyways? Vampires can take anything they want."

"Because I'm not like that!" Sarah exclaims. "I'm trying to meet you halfway here Erica. Can you drop it on the 'acting like a proper vampire' thing?"

Ethan pulls Benny's duffel bag into his lap. It's strangely heavy for what should've been mostly clothes.

"Fine." Erica folds her arms against her chest. "If you can agree to spend more time with me, I'll stop asking you to act like what you are, which is awesome."

Sarah sighs heavily but takes this as a victory, "Deal." Erica and Sarah hug.

Sarah giggles, "Okay since we're stuck here for a while, why don't you tell me about your latest guy. Date not meal."

Ethan shakes his head. He loves Sarah, but he wasn't sure he would ever understand her. Benny's bag was a complete mess. Dirty and clean clothes intermixed with candy, toys, and random items that looked vaguely magical. It was his grimoire that added a lot of the weight, but the brick certainly didn't help.

"Ethan," Jane calls out over the girl's chatter, now that it's safe. "We can turn the car heater on without running the engine, right? I know we can't run the engine because it'll build up carbon monoxide, but I'm cold."

Now that she mentioned it, Ethan was getting chilly—and cold would be yet another stuck in the mountain survival issue. "Yeah that would work for now," Ethan calls back, "but there can't be more than ten hours of battery power, so we have to figure out how to stay warm after that."

Ethan inspects a ball of green twine that he imagines is imbued with some interesting magical property.

"Wait," Erica leans over the back seat to glare at Ethan, "you think we're going to be here longer than ten hours?" Even in the weak dappled light of the fairy balls her fangs glinted menacingly.

"Did I forget to mention," Ethan's strained voice comes out higher than normal, "that uh... Benny apparently needs two days to recharge before he can cast the spell again..." Ethan lets the words trail off, tensely watching Erica's movements. "But we might find another way out before that." Ethan squeaks.

Sarah slammed her fist into the side of the car beyond Erica, effectively blocking Erica from Ethan. Right. Vampire girlfriend. Handy.

"Ugh I wouldn't do anything to Ethan." Erica rolls her eyes, "Permanent." She adds quietly. Ethan gulped.

"Okaay," Jane says, "But I'm still cold and I don't know how to turn the car on."

Sarah isn't moving. Erica scoffs but gives in, leaning forward to turn the car's electricity on.

"Thanks," Jane says flatly and begins fiddling with the dials to get the result she wants.

"Maybe," Erica begins in a falsely bright tone, "We should move all the humans into the back row so they can keep each other warm." On several occasions, Sarah had assured Ethan that Erica was only condescending and mean to mask the fact she cared. Ethan guessed it still counted as helping.

"I'm warm." Sarah whines.

"Right," Erica looks pained as if Sarah was forcing to call up patience from some previously unknown depths, "But you shouldn't be. We're dead Sarah. We don't have to breath, eat human food, or produce body heat. Considering we're stuck in a mountain without a lot of feeding options, maybe we should be conserving energy? Hmm?"

"Fine," Sarah relents, "but I don't know how to... 'turn myself off.'"

Ethan waits in the back as the girls play musical car seats. Jane crawls back to where Ethan had been sitting, leaving her spot open for Erica. Once Erica is in the front, she does her best to scoop Benny up (It's not that he's heavy, he's just an awkward shape), bracing her knee on the middle console as she feeds him head first to Sarah. Benny's body is completely limp and watching his limbs flop turns Ethan's stomach.

Sarah positions Benny gently into Erica's old spot, going so far to take off her jacket and fold it into a pillow. Still his head lolls straight back with his mouth gaping open. As an afterthought Sarah gathers up some of the glass from the floor and tosses it outside the door though the broken window. Thankfully the window is mostly intact and doesn't pose a serious danger.

Afterwards Sarah climbs into the driver's seat. While Jane is the smallest, she is leaving the middle seat open for Ethan. Begrudgingly, Ethan gathers up his findings and clambers into the middle seat.

Erica is walking Sarah through turning off her body's autonomic functions. Jane has reopened her grimoire and resumed skimming its contents. Ethan shows her the green twine, "Do you know what this is."

Jane huffs, "I'm actually doing something here." She gestures to the open book in her lap.

"Real quick," Ethan pleads, "Either you know what it is or not."

Jane takes the twine, whispering in Latin. It glows briefly. "This is ordinary twine, Ethan" She reports, "Besides don't you get visions off enchanted items?"

"Right." Ethan says deflated. He hadn't gotten visions off anything he pulled from Benny's bag. Why would Benny pack half a spool of twine, an empty tin box, marbles, and a dog toy. Even those gemstones hadn't given Ethan a vision.

Benny makes a pained grunt in his sleep. Ethan scoots up to Benny until their sides are fully touching, to keep him warm. Unable to help Jane and uninterested in discussing birthday party plans with Sarah and Erica, Ethan resigns himself to wait patiently as Benny's heater. At least he has a book.


	2. Chapter 2

Benny woke ready to fight. But his karate chopping and unintelligible shouting subsided into clutching his stomach and zombie moans nearly instantly.

"You're up!" Sarah chimes happily. Benny doesn't seem to appreciate her sentiment.

"What happened?" Benny asks.

Ethan puts his book on the floor at his feet and answers, "Cliffsnote version: you ran out of magic trying to transport us home and now we're stuck in a mountain."

"Oh." Benny replies, pauses a moment, then raises his hand, "I guess I'll get us home now."

"No." Ethan covers Benny's mouth, and Sarah catches his hand. "Slightly longer version, I had a vision that you wouldn't be able to cast the spell again for two days. So probably something way worse will happen if you try."

Benny pulls back into himself groaning, "Two days?" He sinks into the seat, shifting to try to get comfortable. "Well it isn't the worst time I've messed up. Heh."

"I beg to differ, dweeb." Erica snips from the front seat.

"Let's not spend two days fighting." Sarah pleads. "How are you feeling Benny?" She asks instead.

"Like all of my insides have been taken out, blended and put back in me." Benny complains.

"Do you need aspirin? food? water? We have tons of Doritos left still." Ethan prompts.

"Ughl, I'm gonna upchuck just thinking about it." Benny moans, rolling into the door.

Ethan looks over his shoulder into the trunk. "I think the med-kit has Pepto-Bismol." He offers.

"Barf." Benny fake gags, but it sounds a little too real. "I don't think I could keep even medicine down right now. Distraction would be nice, though, maybe." Benny asks plaintively.

"Truth or dare!" Jane pipes up quickly.

Ethan narrows his eyes suspiciously. "We can't do dares in a car, Jane."

"Truth or truth," Jane tries again.

Sarah seems amused with Jane when she asks, "What would be the point of two truths?"

"You get two questions to choose from." Jane eagerly responds. Ethan just knows she has an ulterior motive here. For further proof, Jane is nervously tapping the cover of her grimoire with one hand while the other marks a page.

"Sounds good, Janie." Benny casts the first vote. The rest of the car apathetically agrees.

"Great, I'll start. Benny, first question: what's the worst mistake you've ever made with magic?"

"Second question?" Benny asks with a grimace.

"If you had to, like Ethan was cursed, would you kiss him?" Jane rushes the words out. It was a weird question, and it didn't help Ethan figure out her endgame.

"Yeah." Benny answers immediately. Benny's loyalty warms Ethan.

"Fascinating." Erica says sarcastically, clearly less impressed. "My turn. Sarah, you can either answer: Who tastes better, nerd 1 or nerd 2?" Erica points at Benny and Ethan in turn. "Or, would you let Benny give me some blood?"

"Erica! No, Benny is no shape to feed you!" Sarah exclaims.

Erica opens her mouth to argue back, but Benny interrupts her, "Also I'm not keen on donating, if anyone cares. My turn? I've got a question for you Jane. Is there a special someone at school?"

Ethan groans, "I don't want to hear this about my sister!"

"Question stands." Benny insists.

Meanwhile, Jane has turned bright red. Seemingly forgetting the option of a second question she replies smally, "No."

"Sarah," Erica starts. Everyone is way too much into this game for Ethan's comfort. "Once Benny is feeling better would you care if I asked Benny for blood and he gave it to me?"

"It's not your turn, Erica." Sarah deflects. Ethan will have to ask Sarah later what Erica's deal is. And if he should be worried about her eating Benny.

"I'll go." Ethan offers. "Uh... Erica..." This could be a good chance to gain some intel on exactly how trustworthy Erica is at least. "Have you ever turned someone?"

Second question." Erica says sweetly.

"Fine, have you... ever kissed a girl?" Ethan throws the question out not really sure what else to ask.

"Yes." Erica answers, and then adds, "What? She looked tasty."

Benny smiles, "Hot."

"And, it's your turn Sarah." Ethan prompts to keep Benny from thinking too hard about Erica kissing girls.

"Oh. Um. Benny, how far have you gotten with a girl?" Sarah asks. This whole car has its mind in the gutter.

"What?!" Benny barks clearly uncomfortable, "I, uh, don't think that's a good topic around Jane."

"I'm not that young!" Jane objects.

"Yes you are." Ethan doesn't really want to hear details of Benny's love life either.

Ethan gives Sarah a questioning glare, but she shrugs innocently. "Okay bad question. Sorry. Benny... You said you would kiss Ethan if you had to, how hard would it be for you?" Erica giggles. "I mean like would you put if off as long as possible or would you be more or less okay with it."

"Great, much better question Sarah." Benny replies sardonically. With his face turned away, Ethan can see the tips of his ears turning red. "Uh... I guess I'm pretty comfortable with Ethan. It wouldn't be that big a deal. No homo or anything." Erica snorts.

"Okay!" Jane says urgently, "My turn again and I have a dare for you, Ethan, and you have to do it. No buts." Ethan begins to protest, but Jane bowls over him, "I dare you to kiss Benny."

"What?!" Ethan yelps jumping away from Benny as much as he could in a car. This had to be what Jane was getting at, but why?

"No, why would you even ask that? I'm not doing that." Ethan pauses in disbelief at the serious expression on Jane's face. "I have a bunch of reasons for not doing that: One) I'm dating Sarah," Ethan begins ticking the reasons on his fingers, "Two) I'm not into guys; Three) Benny's my best friend and that would be weird; Four) Benny's not into guys; And just to round it out, five) Benny feels like crap right now and isn't exactly in the romantic mood."

"What he said." Benny concurs.

Jane throws one hand over her shoulder in surrender, the other opens her grimoire where she had been marking her page. She gestures to the solid block of Latin writing, "It's just I was reading everything I could about magic energy. Mages can transfer energy between themselves with a spell, but it's too complicated for me to manage.

"Ethan as a seer you have a lot of magic energy, but you can't cast spells at all. However, acts of intimacy also naturally transfer energy like when you were cuddling with Benny earlier," Ethan feels his face heating up and decidedly doesn't look in Sarah's direction. "But the more intimate the act, the faster the energy transfer. You could get us home a lot earlier, or at least help Benny feel better." Jane apologetically side smiles at her brother.

Behind Ethan, Benny says, "Never mind. I'm in."

Sarah shrugs, "It's fine with me, if you're okay with it Ethan."

"Um." Jane licks her lips hesitantly, "Just to be clear, you'd have to really kiss Benny. Like kiss him like you kiss Sarah." She's pointing to a line of text as proof. Ethan has to take her word for it. Benny's the only other one in the car who can read Latin.

"Still in." Benny chimes. Either the guilt or the pain must be really bad for Benny.

"Sarah?" Erica questions with an arched eyebrow.

"Well it'll get us home sooner." Sarah reasons. "And I know Ethan loves me. Okay, I'm still okay with it."

Ethan feels like his stomach fell out. "Woul-" His voice catches and he has to start again. "Couldn't we just cuddle more?"

"Ethan weren't you listening," Jane switches from sympathetic to irritated, "Cuddling works, but not fast enough. Is one kiss really going to hurt?"

Ethan balks. He can't bring himself to even look at Benny right now.

Erica sighs, clearly put upon, "Listen here, dork. You are literally the only person in the car who has a problem with this. I will not be trapped in this teeny metal junkheap-"

"Hey." Benny objects to the insult to his car.

Erica continues over him, "-with you idiots for two days with no radio or internet or tasty guys. We won't even be able to play music off our phones for that long before they die. And did you forget that you meatbags have to go to the bathroom eventually?

"So I want you to pucker up and get all hot and handsy with Benny. If it helps your primate heteronormative brain, I can guarantee that we'll all pretend nothing happened. And you can live your merry life in denial," Erica's worked up enough that she's baring her fangs at Ethan again. "ONCE we are out of this car." Done with her tirade, Erica slams back into her seat, arms crossed, staring angrily at the stone beyond the windshield.

"Okay. Fine. I'll do it." Ethan isn't sure how to feel and his voice comes out strained because of it.

"Ethan," Sarah reaches and grabs his hand giving it a little shake, "It's alright really." She reassures him, lowering her head to meet his eyes. Erica is plugging her phone into the car's stereo. "Okay?"

Ethan smiles tersely, "Yeah I'm fine. Sorry."

"Jane I'd recommend you move to the back." Benny says, "I can't really move right now, and I doubt you want to sit next to us while we mack." He adds as clarification.

"Moving." Jane scampers over the back seat into the trunk area. "I'm going to need therapy after this." She grumbled to herself.

'Fancy' blares out of the car speakers. Erica has started up her playlist, but Ethan knows the vampires will still be able to hear them. Vampires including his girlfriend. His girlfriend is sitting in the front seat listening to him essentially cheat on her. And she was okay with it?

Ethan takes a deep bracing breath; he can't let himself think about that at the moment. He turns to face Benny now that everyone is situated. Benny is watching him, waiting. Despite feeling sick, he has shifted his body to better face Ethan.

Ethan considers the challenge, staring at Benny's mouth. Benny chuckles lightly, "E, it's like a Band-Aid, you gotta just rip it off." He puckers his mouth comically.

"Uh... okay. Just stop doing that." Ethan protests. Benny relaxes his mouth, but immediately cracks into a grin. Ethan dramatically buries his face in his hands making Benny laugh.

"Ow. Don't make me laugh, that hurts." Benny complains.

"Okay. Okay." Ethan tries to focus, but the moment he opens his eyes and sees Benny's stupid face he cracks up again. Benny's chest shakes, clearly trying to stifle his own laughter.

"Stop that," Ethan commands Benny covering his mouth with his hand, as if that would silence him. Ethan can feel Benny smiling against his palm. Without another thought Ethan leans in, sliding his hand up to hold Benny's face, and quickly kisses him.

Internally Ethan realizes that this first kiss was not intimate. It would be more accurately described as head-butting Benny with his mouth. Before Benny can react, Ethan kisses him again. This time opening his mouth slightly to fully press into Benny's warm soft lips. Benny sits forward, trying to deepen the kiss but Ethan moves back with him keeping the pressure teasing. Ethan is surprised when he feels the tip of Benny's tongue brush against his bottom lip, and pulls back in shock, breaking the kiss.

"Wow," Benny says reverently, "That really worked." Benny pulls himself into a fully upright position, and rests his head against the seat in front of him. Just the fact that he's moving around is a good sign. He turns to look at Ethan, smiling sweetly. "I don't feel like I'm going to puke my guts out anymore!"

The boys break into laughter again.

"Great," Erica snips from the front seat, "you survived a single kiss. Can we go home now?"

"Uh..." Ethan grabs Benny's shoulder with that question in mind. Benny still has this gooey look on his face that embarrasses Ethan knowing he put it there. "35 hours and 14 minutes."

Erica groans. Sarah flicks her arm, "Erica! It took a lot for them to do that. It's not their fault it only took off ten hours."

Ethan wipes the spit off his mouth, considering whether he should kiss Benny again. Nobody wanted to be stuck in this car, but he wanted to come out of this with Sarah still talking to him. When Ethan chanced looking her way, she smiled back encouragingly. That was good, right?

Benny wasn't waiting for Ethan, though. Rotating his weight, Benny pushes Ethan firmly against the seat back, taking his mouth in a full kiss. Ethan gasps and incidentally sucks in Benny's hot breath.

Ethan was used to Sarah doing this, pinning him and taking control. Ethan thought it was her vampire side showing, she even fanged out sometimes and accidentally nipped Ethan's lips. Kissing Benny was... different. Despite Benny's dominant position hovering over Ethan, he was following Ethan's lead. Scrunching his body down to kiss Ethan at his level instead of pulling Ethan's head back to meet him.

Ethan takes another breath, purposely breathing Benny in this time. It was heady. Benny kinda nuzzles Ethan with his nose, letting the kiss get sloppy. Ethan sucks on Benny's bottom lip, just grazing him with his teeth.

Benny shifts back slightly, taking a hand off of Ethan's shoulders to reach into his pants. Ethan chokes off a moan, wanting to stay completely silent, and failing that he at least wants to not give any indication he was enjoying this. The hand came out again quickly—Benny was only straightening himself out, but that means Benny was hard. The realization sparks a buzzy needy feeling in Ethan's body.

Benny smiles against Ethan's lips, that mischievous pleased smile. Ethan wedges his hand between their bodies to push Benny away. Quizzically Benny sits back on his haunches, biting his lip worriedly.

One hand pushing on his chest, the other steady on the nape of Benny's neck, Ethan holds Benny in place. He only needs a moment to breathe through the panic and guilt-he's not actually trying to get Benny off of him.

Ethan gives Benny the slightest nudge to move back in and Benny is already there. It's so easy being intimate with Benny, and Ethan decides to just let himself sink into it. Ethan strokes Benny's arm, going under the sleeve, feeling the tension in his muscles as he holds himself up. Ethan arches his back while pulling Benny into him. Benny's chest is warm and broad, and feels so good against Ethan's body.

And that's when Benny jumps back like he's placed his hand on the hot stove. In one instant Ethan sees Benny whack his head against the roof of the car, and in the next Sarah has vamp-sped to fill the newly created void between the two boys.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asks petting Benny's head. Ethan cannot process the uneasy amalgam of harsh rejection, shame, and a spike of jealousy watching Sarah coo over Benny.

Benny is gasping for breath, folded over himself with his hand covering his heart. He nods, but can't apparently speak. Benny goes through a couple of intentionally slow deep breaths. Ethan notices Jane peaking over the back seat from the trunk. Apparently she could hear them well enough to know something happened.

"I think you put too much into that last kiss E. It felt like biting into a live wire." Benny explains finally.

"Oh." Is all Ethan can think to respond.

The expression on Ethan's face must be telling, because as soon as Sarah looks at him she falls back into a cuddle with him, resting her head against his shoulder, "Ethan can you check the time we have left again?" She asks sweetly.

Ethan holds out his hand and Benny takes it. "Twenty-two minutes." Ethan reports. "Probably short enough to just ride this out." Or what he really meant to say, please don't make me kiss Benny again and go through all these emotions all over again.

"Good," Jane chimes in. "because there aren't heaters in the far back of the car, and I'm getting cold again." She starts climbing over the back seat, stepping behind Ethan but not sitting down. "Can I have the driver's seat?"

It's a diplomatic way of saying that she doesn't want to sit next to the awkward sexual tension that materialized in the last five minutes. Ethan is just grateful that his sister isn't saying more. Sarah nods.

"So..." Benny asks while Jane crawls into the front, "Sarah. We're still friends right?" There's that slightly high timbre in his voice.

"Of course, Benny!" Sarah exclaims. She seems bizarrely okay. Ethan wonders if that's girl for actually being really upset.

Ethan was left feeling moody. He scooted back so he was resting against the door opposite Benny. Sarah gladly snuggled with him. If Ethan was being honest, she seemed rather pleased with the whole situation. No one was talking though, and even with the music Ethan could feel the atmosphere in the car become increasingly awkward.

"You're lucky, Sarah," Benny says finally, trying to fight a smile, "Ethan's kisses are electric." Benny's dumb joke does actually provoke some laughter in the car.


End file.
